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THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE
THE GENESIS FLOOD
By Duane Warden
“These are the generations”: A
clue to the author’s purpose
• 2:4, “These are the generations of the heavens and the
earth.”
• 5:1, “These are the generations of Adam.”
• 6:9, “These are the generations of Noah.”
• 10:1, “These are the generations of the sons of Noah.”
• 11:10, “These are the generations of Shem.”
• 11:27, “These are the generations of Terah.”
• 25:12, “These are the generations of Ishmael.”
• 25:19, “These are the generations of Isaac.”
• 36:1, “These are the generations of Esau.”
• 37:2, “These are the generations of Jacob”
Conclusion: It appears that the author wanted to establish
continuity from Creation to the descendants of Jacob.
What Statement Does The Author
Want to Make in the First 11
Chapters of Genesis?
 When God created there was harmony between
God and people, God and creation (Gen. 1-2).
 The harmony was broken because humankind was
unwilling to be innocent; driven by pride, people
rose against God. They did things their own way.
 The narratives in Genesis 3 (first sin), Genesis 6-9
(flood), and Genesis 11 (Babel) illustrate the dis-
harmony that results when people want to be like
God.
 The call of Abraham introduced the path to a
restoration of harmony (Gen. 12-50).
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FLOOD NARRATIVE TO THE
MESSAGE OF GENESIS

Genesis 1-11: The prologue. Mesopotamia
is the setting.

Genesis 12-38: The main body. Palestine is
the setting.

Genesis 39-50: The epilogue. Egypt is the
setting.

Conclusion: The author’s world appears to
1
be Mesopotamia, Palestine and Egypt. 2
Indications of the Author’s Method
and Purpose in Genesis 1-11
• Half of the occurrences of “these are the generations”
are before or in the context of the flood.
• There are ten generations from Adam to Noah.
• There are ten generations from Noah to Abraham.
• The author hurries past the primeval history of
humankind in order to bring us to the father of Israel.
• Conclusion: Genesis 1-11 is not disinterested history,
but the factual recording of events is hardly driving
him to write. The narrative is stylized and serves the
purposes of the author.
3 4
The Flood Narrative Supports the
Theme That Unites the First
Eleven Chapters of Genesis
 God governs the world of humankind consistent with moral
principals that are inherent in his Being.
 God is angry when people rebel against the moral order by
which he governs the world.
 Men and women are moral beings. God holds them morally
accountable.
 These are the concerns of Genesis. Whether the flood was
universal or local has little relevance for what the author
wants to communicate.
5 6
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Genesis 6:5: “The Lord saw that the

Genesis 6:9: “Noah was a
wickedness of humankind was great in
the earth, and that every inclination of righteous man, blameless
the thoughts of their hearts was only in his generation; Noah
evil continually.” walked with God.”
• God took note of the extensiveness of sin.
Genesis 6:18: “I will
• God took note of the intensity of the sin. establish my covenant with
you.”
7 8

Where Does the Data Lead Us?

Questions We Bring to the Flood
Narrative
• Was it a universal flood? Was the entire earth covered
over by water?
• However we answer these questions, the messages of
God’s sovereignty and his judgment remain the same.
• The question isn’t whether God is able to bring a universal
flood.
• The question is whether the data, biblical and non-biblical,
demand this conclusion.
• Most will grant that the biblical data allows for a literal
reading. The question is, Does it demand a literal reading?
9 10
Was The Entire Earth Covered by
Water?
• A literal reading of the Genesis account suggests a
universal flood (Gen. 6:7, 17; 7:19).
• Before the development of modern science, there was
no question. Readers of the Bible accepted the flood
as universal.
• The great majority of modern geologists, seemingly
with no ax to grind, deny that the geological data
point to a universal flood. Therein lies the problem.
• Despite claims that geological evidence points to a
universal flood, the viewpoint is not widely accepted.

For All that Can be Said in Its Favor,
There Are Serious Reasons to Doubt
That the Earth Was Even Inundated by
a Universal Flood
For the most part only non-geologists believe that
a universal flood occurring some 5-6 thousand
years ago best accounts for the geological data.
Elaborate theories of vapor canopies and such for
the antediluvian world have the appearance of
being born of desperation.
We don’t want to argue that God could not have
brought a universal flood. It is a matter of the
evidence. Has a universal flood left its print on
the planet? The answer appears to be no. 11
Geological Considerations Aside,
Is There Archaeological Support
for a Universal Flood?
 In the early 20th century archaeologists from the University
of Pennsylvania found thick layers of sediment at sites in
southeastern Mesopotamia.
 Data from this excavation are still widely cited.
 On closer examination, the sediment at different sites dated
from different periods.
 Outside Mesopotamia, very old sites in the Near East such
as Jericho had no layers of water laid sediment.
 What is true of the Near East is true world wide:
Archaeological data for a flood of world wide scope is
virtually non-existent. 12

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There Are Many Flood Stories in the

Traditions of Ancient People.
The Most Interesting of Ancient Flood

Some argue that the stories are residues of the
remembrance of a worldwide flood, but there are Stories Comprises a Part of What Is
problems. Called the Gilgamesh Epic.

Flood traditions are almost entirely lacking in the
old traditions of Africa and Europe. They are The Story Itself Dates from the Early
absent from most parts of Asia. Second Millennium B. C. Though the

Flood traditions are common among the
indigenous peoples of America and the Pacific Oldest Surviving Copies Come from
Islands. the 8th Century B. C.

Many of the flood traditions that exist bear little
resemblance to the narrative in Genesis 6-9.
13 14

The Gilgamesh Epic Offers

A portion of Likenesses and Differences to the
Gilgamesh Epic.
The clay tablet
Genesis Flood
• The hero was warned by the gods that a flood was coming.
itself is from • He constructed a vessel that was cube, 120 cubits in each
Assyria, but the direction. It had 7 stories and 63 compartments.
epic itself is • He deceived his neighbors about the purpose of the boat so
they wouldn’t suspect a flood.
much older. • He loaded his family, skilled craftsmen, and “the seed of
In his quest, all life” into his boat.
Gilgamesh found • At the end, he sent out birds to find dry land. The raven
didn’t return.
a story about a
• He offers a sacrifice around which the gods gather “like
flood. 15 flies.” 16

Question: Does the frequency of There Are Enough Geological

flood traditions testify to a historical Obstacles to a Universal Flood to
flood of universal dimensions? Drive Us Back to the Text
Answer: In the end the traditions Does the narrative in Genesis 6-9 demand that we
read it as a universal, world-wide flood?
seem to have more to do with floods
Does faith in God and faith in the Bible as his
and their near universal experience revelation require the conclusion that a universal
than they have to do with testimony flood inundated the earth some 5-6,000 years ago?
How we answer these questions will depend to
to a world wide flood event. some degree on the way authors of the Bible
addressed their contemporary world.
17 18

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A Set Of Assumptions Lie Behind Our
Understanding of The Flood Narrative

People speak and write within the context of the world
they know.

The world described in the Genesis narrative was the
one the author and his readers knew and experienced,
just as ours is for us.

Stated negatively, ancient people knew nothing of a
spherical earth and distant lands.

The world that mattered to the author of Genesis and
his readers was inundated. For the ancients, the flood
was universal. The language is universal language.

Genesis may describe the flood in the only way that
would have been meaningful to them. 19
A parallel to the universal language used
of the flood can be found in the New
Testament when Paul says of the gospel:
“…just as in all the world it is constantly
bearing fruit and increasing…” (Col. 1:6)
Surely Paul means that the gospel was
bearing fruit in the world known to him
and his readers.
21
Some of the more
spectacular claims about the
flood are about Noah’s Ark
• A television production called “The Incredible
Discovery of Noah’s Ark” aired on CBS in 1993.
It has replayed on the History Channel, Discovery,
etc.
• The primary source for the documentary turned
out to be a fabrication.
• Events such as this often turn out to be more of an
embarrassment than a help to those whose faith is
in God. 23
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Was There a Flood? Is the
Genesis Narrative a Mythological
Description?
The flood is presented as a real event that took
place in real time in Mesopotamia. There is no
reason for us to take it otherwise.
The Genesis Flood is free of capricious acts of
gods. It is about God’s expectation from his
creatures; it is about justice.
A just man, Noah and his family, took the animals
of their world and through obedience, saved
themselves from God’s indignation, God’s wrath
against sin. 20
Do We Have Problems with a
Universal Flood Because It
Would Be Miraculous?
• Moses led Israel across the Red Sea on dry ground.
Jesus was born of a virgin.
• Are we to reject the miraculous because it is non-
repeatable and hence non-verifiable?
• The message of the Bible is often tied up in the
truthfulness of the historical witness.
• To believe in God at all is to believe that he intervenes in
the world at his will.
• The way one interprets the Bible becomes an issue when
the observed world offers hard evidence that contradicts
the way the Bible has been interpreted.
• The observed world calls into question a universal flood.
22
Modern Attempts to Locate Mt.
Ararat Lack Credibility
• Over the centuries many mountains have been
identified as Mt. Ararat. The current one be-
came the mountain of choice in the 5th century.
• The Bible does not say that the Ark came to rest
on Mt. Ararat.
• Ararat is a region. The Ark rested on the
Mountains of Ararat, a region mentioned in
Isaiah 37:38 and Jeremiah 51:27.
• The mountain called Ararat in modern times has
popular ski resorts. The local people enjoy all
the publicity brought their way.
24
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From the mid-5th Century a Mountain in Eastern

Turkey has been identified with Mt. Ararat 25
Mt. Ararat, Eastern Turkey 26

Enthusiasts Who Search for the

Ark of Noah Have Long Had the
Goal “Just Within Reach”
 Wood that was supposed to have been from the
Ark has been carbon dated.
 Carbon dating has shown the wood to come from
the mid-5th century, just the time when Christians
began to identify this mountain with Ararat.
 Stories and witnesses, on close examination New images of Noah’s Ark on Mt.
amount to little.
Ararat surface regularly. This one
 Pictures taken from space are not convincing after
careful examination. was captured by a commercial satellite
 See Lloyd Bailey, Where Is Noah’s Ark? in 2003.
27 28
(Abingdon, 1978) for more information.

The Flood Has Become a Gateway

for Projecting an Entire Interpretative
What is popularly called “Flood
Scheme on Genesis 1-11
Geology” is set forth in John C.
 By means of “Flood Geology” assertions are made that Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, The
the flood was universal and that it happened in the
relatively immediate past. Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record
 From there, the assertion is that Genesis 1-2 describe a
relatively recent earth. and Its Scientific Implications
 The “young earth” theory has been driven by a way of (Philadephia: Presbyterian and
reading the flood narrative, and only later a way of
reading the creation narrative. Reformed Publishing Company, 1961)
 All of this would be fine were it not for the additional
implication or assertion that anyone who believes
differently doesn’t believe the Bible. 29 30

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History: The Extremes
• One extreme: The biblical creation and
flood narratives partake of ancient Near
Eastern mythology. As such they have no
bearing on history.
• The other extreme: The narratives are literal
descriptions. They are intended as nothing
but history.
31
Why Would God Use Poetry & Metaphor
to Speak of Creation and the Flood? Why
are they in the Bible at All?
• The stories speak to universal points of curiosity
and interest. They teach important truths.
• Poetry and metaphor use universal language. The
language speaks across culture and history.
• Poetic devices engage listeners or readers on a
level where narrative alone fails. They tease our
minds for new levels of understanding.
• Poetic devices set forth universal truths in
memorable, striking ways.
33
Creation/Naturalism;
Young Earth/Old Earth
How We Got Here
• Before the Renaissance and the
17th-18th century enlighten-ment,
theology and science were
happy allies.
• Science supported dogma;
theology was the queen of the
sciences.
35
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A Better Way: The Creation & Flood
Narratives are Interpreted History. Using
Metaphors and Poetic Imagination the
Author Sets Forth Real Events in Terms of
God’s Sovereign Rule Over Against the
Alternative of Idolatry. The Author of
Genesis Presents Humankind as Moral
Beings Responsible to God.
32
CONCLUSIONS
• For those who have no trouble reconciling scientific
data with a universal flood in Genesis, we respect the
viewpoint.
• To those who believe the scientific data cannot be
reconciled with a young earth and a universal flood, we
maintain that the Genesis narrative does not demand
such an interpretation.
• The historical testimony of Genesis is to be taken
seriously. There was a flood. The narrative is not to
be dismissed as mythological, hence with no historical
claim.
• The flood narrative is about God’s moral governance
of his world. He judges the world as he wills.
34
First Signs of Tension
• Late 16th, early 17th century Galileo
clashed with the church.
• Baruch Spinoza (17th cent.) and
subsequent scholars, particular in
Germany, challenged the privileged
position of the Bible.
• The Bible is to be interpreted like
any other book, no special pleading.
36
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Early Christian Response
to Scientific Revolution
• American Restoration Movement
was young. First educational
institution was Bacon College, 1834.
• Late 19th century conservative
Christians were more concerned
with “higher criticism” than with
challenges from science.
• Many conservative Christians argued
that evolution was the means God
used to create.
37
Science/Church at the
beginning of the 20th
Century
• Some were concerned because
evolution required an old earth, but it
was no big problem.
• Appeal to the geological record to
support a universal flood had little if
any support.
• Some understood Genesis 1-2 on a
day-age model. Others held some
variation of a “gap theory.”
39
The Growing Divide
• Pre-WW II conservative Christians
continued to hold the scientific
enterprise in high regard.
• At the same time, an anti-evolution
voice was galvanizing.
• Conservative churchmen increasingly
attacked evolution as “unscientific,”
speculative, untrue.
• At that, many conceded that the earth
is old. The “gap theory” of Genesis
became more widespread.
41
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In Spite of Tension as the
19th Century Yielded to the
20th, Theology Considered
Science its Ally
• New scientific data added to
the perception that the world
was a place of design.
• The teleological argument was
evidence for God’s existence.
• The publication of Origin of the
Species in 1859 did little to
fragment the alliance. 38
The Conservative Search
for Fundamentals
• Between 1910 & 1912 church leaders
associated with Dwight Moody published a
series of tracts called “The Fundamentals.”
• About 1919 an organization appeared on
the national scene called “World’s
Christian Fundamentals Association.”
• On the whole, the leadership was well
educated and moderate.
• Most, including its most public figure,
William Jennings Bryan, conceded that the
earth was vastly old.
40
FROM THE FUNDAMENTALS
TO FUNDAMENTALISM
• During the 1920s and 30s popular spokesmen
arose, wielding quasi-scientific credentials and
data to attack “Darwinian Evolution.”
• Within many conservative religious communi-
ties, evolution became the embodiment of a
secular, godless world view that wanted to shut
God out of public life.
• The popular press coined the term “fundamen-
talism.”
• “Fundamentalists” were caricaturized as “Bible
bangers,” ignorant and barefoot, living in small
southern towns.
42
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From Tension to Warfare

In the 1920s spokesmen Harry Rimmer published
many books. About 25 are in Harding’s library.

Rimmer was not a scientist, but founded the
“Research Science Bureau.” He became a popular
anti-evolution lecturer.

William Jennings Bryan built political fame opposing
evolution.

In the early 1920s several southern states outlawed
the teaching of evolution in public schools.

The famous or infamous Scopes Trial got underway
in 1925 and quickly disintegrated into a media frenzy.

43 44

The Roots of Hardening

Positions
• Ellen White (1827-1915) founded Seventh-
day Adventism. Her followers consider her
inspired.
• She found support for seventh-day doctrine in
the Genesis record.
• White maintained that the days of Genesis 1
were literal 24 hour periods. Further, she
maintained that the flood was universal.
• Her “revelation” included the declaration that
the fossil record, geological formations, etc.
were placed there by the flood.
45
“Flood Geology” Comes to Life
 In the 1920s and 30s, a follower of Ellen
White, George McReady Price, popularized
“Flood Geology” in two dozen books.
 The viewpoint was that in a year or less
strata, geological features, fossils, etc. had
come into being.
 The earth was less than 10,000-years-old.
Evolution was false. The time span it
required was not to be found.
46

“Flood Geology”
Becomes Dogma
• In the 1950s “Flood Geology” received new
respectability from a civil engineer at Rice, Henry
Morris.
• Morris teamed up with John Whitcomb, an OT
scholar from Grace Theological Seminary (Indiana).
• The result was the 1961 publication of The Genesis
Flood. It was an instant success. In 1995 it was in
its 35th printing.
• “Flood Geology,” literal 24-hour days in Genesis,
and “intelligent design” came to be popularly
identified. It’s become a straw man for those who
made light of religion.
47 48

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Extreme views tend to
gain adherents
• Controversy has been stirred because of
extreme positions and inflammatory rhetoric of
some in the scientific community and some in
the religious community.
• Richard Dawkins: “It is absolutely safe to say
that if you meet somebody who claims not
believe in evolution, that person is ignorant,
stupid or insane.”
• Henry Morris: “Now the most amazing thing
about this whole state of affairs is the absurdity
and impossibility of the very concept of
evolution.”
Faith, Creation, and the
Natural Sciences: Refusing
the Wedge
• Tension between the scientific and religious
communities is of recent origin.
• All along, there have been people from the
sciences and people of fundamental religious
persuasion who have refused the polarization.
• Many scientists with impeccable credentials and
noteworthy accomplishments have been people of
piety and deep religious faith.
• Leaders in the religious community have dared to
allow the sciences to explore in ways that have
challenged their interpretations of Scripture.
Further Considerations:

How does the church stick to its own faith without
becoming impervious to truths made known from
outside its field?

It is said that the driving forces behind science are
prediction and explanation. Which of these do
you think is the more powerful factor?

Is it true that the definition, purposes, and
justification of science are philosophical
presuppositions about science that cannot be
validated by science?
? ?? ? ? ? ? ?? ?? ?? ?
Facile representations of
contrary viewpoints is not
the exclusive domain of
religious adherents
49 50
Other Developments in the
Science-Religion dialogue
• In 1970 the University of Chicago Press
published a small volume by Thomas Kuhn
called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
• And Post-modernism was born.
• It has become increasingly apparent that
science and religion cannot live each in its
isolated universe.
• We people of science and religion are
together in this thing called life.
51 52
Discussion Continued:

If natural theology does not “prove” that
God exists, may we at least say that natural
theology is an important plank in a coherent
view of the universe?

Can science by itself address subjective
experience, e.g., “I think I am worried about
the safety of my child. Could you run a few
tests to see if I really am”?
53 54
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Final Thought
“False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the
gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a
reformer and yet succeed only in winning a
straggler here and there, if we permit the whole
collective thought of the nation or of the world to
be controlled by ideas which by the resistless
force of logic, prevent Christianity from being
regarded as anything more than a harmless
delusion.”
--J. Gresham Machen
55

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